New Gran Tourismo 5 due for October Release

Polyphony Digital announced at E3 last week that in honor of 10 years of Gran Tourismo, they would be teasing "Gran Tourismo 5" with a full featured downloadable demo called "Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue." from the looks of the screen shots, it appears to include freaking awesome amounts of detail and will definitely whet the appetites of many a wanna-be rice-burning, Euro-trash car fan.

GT4 was pretty impressive with the level of detail they included. The high definition version they released last year was even more incredible and it looks like GT5 is going to take things one step further and really start stretching the legs of the Playstation 3 platform.

The Polyphony website is in Japanese right now, but from translations it looks like they are talking about 16 cars on the track at the same time, and some new cars including the Ferrari F340, EvoX, STI and GT-R. Some interesting additions include weather generation, video streaming (like YouTube but for GT movies) and a real-world connection to Playstation Home to allow online play.

Naturally, the GT uber-geeks are all giddy over the screenshots and vague details.

Quoting one fanboy from the forums:

Oh My God. My dear God.Looking.. Unbeleivable. When you see the trailer in HD, you're likely about to.. die?

Well there's pretty cars and all, but let's not get ahead of ourselves there, Sparky. The game looks very nice, but how well does it play?

I've been playing GT for many years and for far too many hours at a time. Sitting there perfecting the exact moment I reached the apex of a corner to apply the right amount of gas to get ahead of my competition, finding the ideal racing line, upshifting, downshifting, rocketing down the back straightaways, and timing my moment to pass someone has become a major undertaking.

But the one thing that became annoying is that the cars never get damaged: Clip a guardrail doing 200 miles per hour or hit a curb and smack the barricade in a chicane and you just bounce off or stop instantly without so much as a blemish to the vehicle's pristine finish or suspension. Not very realistic to say the least. The one thing I have been waiting to see is accurately modeled vehicle damage, but in order for Polyphony to acquire the licensing for all those different automobile manufacturers, it looks like they had to stipulate that you will never see a Ferrari break a tie rod or a WRX with a dented fender. That is a MAJOR disappointment and it looks like its going to continue that way for the next incarnation in the GT franchise.

For more information about Gran Tourismo 5: Prologue, including screenshots and videos check out Polyphony's website here.